The Human Beings have inhabited nearly all habitable parts of the planet now. The disciplines of Geography, History, Sociology, Economics & Planning has produced tremendous stories of his imagination & creative potential. There are stories of individuals on one hand & there are collective stories of Human Settlements on the other which are not an outcome of instant development rather a testament of Human Skills of settling his settlement brick by brick over multiple generations.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Shrinking Cities : Twin Effect of Globalization and Urbanization

Shrinking Cities are an increasing international, ‘end of
era’ phenomenon. Over recent decades, globalization has been concentrating
resources, key infrastructure and intellectual assets in ‘global cities’, which
act as magnets for population and skills. The gradual shift towards a new
global economic order has resulted in a new system of global production,
manufacturing, distribution and consumption that has led to new urban forms
made possible by the logistic and new technology revolution. Simultaneously,
other towns, cities and entire regions are experiencing the outflow of capital
and human resources, and are suffering from a lack of entrepreneurship and low
levels of innovation and intellectual engagement. Cities whose development were
based on a single industry, or on the concentration of an activity in a single
sector, have been particularly affected by these globalization processes and,
as a result of increasing competition on an ever-wider scale, certain cities
are losing out. The development and decline of cities and city centres have,
since the Chicago School of Urban Sociology, been viewed as a natural process
whereby urban change results from a lifecycle that ends in inevitable decline.(IJURR
– Shrinking Cities : urban challenges of Globalization).

There are currently about 7.1 billion people living on the
planet.In 2009, the number of
people living in urban areas (3.42 billion) surpassed the number living in
rural areas (3.41 billion) and since then the world has become more urban than
rural.This is currently the first time
ever that the majority of the world's population lives in a city.Cities are continuing to attract
residents, though some continue to lose residents at varying rates, such as
Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio. Global
cities theory forecasts the urban "winners" and
"losers": the winners being those cities with agglomerated financial
and specialized services and the losers being those with outdated industrial
infrastructure and manufacturing economies.

With the increasing twin phenomenon of urbanization and
globalization, cities will face this issue of shrinking population and economy
at more frequent rate. The city authorities have to work in such a way that it
provides zeal and liveliness to its inhabitants and not just for the purpose of
earning and survival.

For instance, Delhi is being developed at a rapid pace and
that too in all directions. There has been a lot of public and private
investment in the last few decades in the city developments. But, if the city
fails to provide in with the living values, a human being deserves, the
population will slowly start vacating their place of inhabitation over a period
of time, say the next generation and the population will start shrinking. It
has many aspects related with it. Firstly, the level of opportunities and the
quality of life of the other cities play an important role in the whole
process. For instance, if Jaipur or say Lucknow starts providing fair amount of
opportunities and facilities plus the quality of life is also better
comparatively, then the population living in Delhi will have an option to go
with. Secondly, level of awareness
amongst the population also plays a significant role in the entire phenomenon.
If they really don’t know or care about the quality of life they live in, then they
will continue doing so. There are many other factors related with it as well.

The disappearance of skills, knowledge and innovation as
those more able leave for the more prosperous cities acts as a silent killer
and the local knowledge base which was responsible for innovations in science
and technology starts becoming unknown. This has been a phenomenon happening
especially in the developing nation’s population and the respective governments
and authorities have to start looking into the matter deeply.

The precautions which can be taken to curb out its effect –
the vision has to be long and distributed well among the factors involved in
the planning and development of the urban settlements. One has to look within
the disciplines to create this vision a success. For instance, hyping a
specific city and over burdening its entire system – as in case of Delhi should
be carefully looked within. The self-sustenance of the cities should be discussed widely. Shrinking cities have their economic cost and it affects
the nation’s economy at large.

City and Political leaders in this aspect play a very significant role as they act as the guiding lamp to the whole process of development. No state/nation can prosper in real sense without their leaders/authorities understanding the process at a wider aspect looking at the ever increasing complexities of the urban settlements. The situation and issues of the developing world in this context are far more different then are perceived parallel with the urbanization process of the developed world generally.

With reference ti Delhi,his observation is more appropriate.At the end he mentioned about awareness and/opportunities which will force the people migrate.The classic example is IT boom and realty boom in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. most of the semi and unskilled laborers from north and north west migrated to south India as a whole.The backward states with better telecommunication spread the news and people migrate.However in Indian context the elders stay put in their villages and do farming.

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Author

I'm a keen observer of natural processes and man-made systems with good grasping ability and analysing skills. I love reading and learning about different disciplines which has showered my being with an inter-disciplinary perspective. I'm an Architect and a Human Development Planner by education and a knowledge enthusiast by nature. One thought poster of my room says, 'Explore your ideas and be Creative, Little things make the real Change'.